Jesus Is In The Sparklers

"Failure's hard, but success is far more dangerous. If you're successful at the wrong thing, the mix of praise and money and opportunity can lock you in forever."
- Po Bronson
(from a Starbucks coffee cup in Florida)


Last night a dear friend from Indiana was trying to get a hold of me. She tried Facebook. She left a voice message on my cell phone. We just weren't connecting... especially within a timeline determinedly etched in her mind. Later in the evening Marsha finally caught me live on Facebook with an IM, and I had to quickly explain we had been out on a very busy night. She said curiously, "Doing what... sparklers on the beach?"

Apparently my second-born posted some cool, slow-shutter-speed photos on the internet just minutes after we had been "busy" doing the beach sparkler thing. Marsha just so happened to see the sinful, indicting photos. Yep, I was busted. This was my study break where I'm supposed to be busy and business like, and in a moment of carnal weakness had lit a few illegal sparklers on a fireworks-banned piece of sand.

Was there ANY redeeming value of waving momentary sparklers into the evening ocean breeze? Could I justify to the church elders and a holy God above as to why I had promiscuously spent time and effort on something as frivolous as cheap fireworks bought somewhere along northbound I-24 in South Tennessee?

Early this morning beside serene gulf coast waters, I started my third study break book. I'm always amazed at how God weaves my annual study break time together in coherent fashions without much intentional effort on my part. My first two books seemed to compliment each other as differing authors were referring to and quoting each other concerning possibilities of the western Church. This was both curious and affirming to me. Both of my first two books ("So Beautiful" & "The Shape Of Things To Come") referred to the absolute necessity of Jesus. Having a proper Christology or understanding of the Jewish-ness of Jesus was of the utmost importance in my first two reads.

If a post-modern, post-Christian missional church is to succeed in our culture, than a proper understanding of the relational and incarnational ways of a Jewish Jesus is key. Our Christology will determine our missiology... which will in turn form our ecclesiology. So guess what (or maybe Who) my third book selection pointed me too? Go ahead... just guess!

As I dove into my third reading, "Sitting At The Feet Of Rabbi Jesus," what had been somewhat theoretical in my first two reads, was now coming to life and stirring my soul. I had devoured and read through half of this third book by late afternoon.

Jesus embraced and shared life in the richness of Jewish tradition. Jesus entering into our world of life seemed to focus more on transformation than mere information. His way of life majored on living instead of what most Bible colleges ask students to major in: thinking & maintenance.

Jesus told his closest friends (and us) to pray for their daily bread. The Hebrew/Jewish word for bread is "lechem." Lechem focuses beyond a slice of Wonder bread or a meager meal... to the whole meal. Lechem actually points to a God who provides all that sustains and blesses us. Lechem is also closely kin to the Hebrew word "L'chaim which means "TO LIFE!" Was Jesus pointing us to something abundantly and aggressively more than what western, American, traditional, Christian, rich, republicans have thought to be true when we pray the Lord's Prayer... having mustered up some semblance of confused humility to pray for our daily bread when we can barely get up from our embarassingly-extravagant daily feasts?

Jesus had powerfully incarnated himself into all of life... not just an hour or two on Sunday mornings. As Lois Tverberg suggests: How is it possible that so many people go to places called "church," but still live alone together?

Perhaps Jesus WAS in the sparklers. There was laughter. Talking. There was excitement. Richness and family were abounding. A family of 6 spending time away from the media and with each other is a significant, noteworthy, and holy task. There were spiritual memories created. Moments of brilliance came flooding into flesh and blood as the clash of heavenly light and darkness were unsuspectingly caught on a digital camera and in our souls.

Maybe we need to let the Jesus who resides inside of us live fully in our lives as well. Maybe we've relegated him enough already to our church buildings and the hour we have sincerely dedicated to him every Sunday. Maybe my Starbucks cup was right. We've been successful at building church walls and church attendance, and now the accolades, praise, and mortgages have become our own religious prison.

And the way out? Sparklers. Jesus. Allowing Jesus to be a continual fireworks display in all parts of our lives seems like a reasonable an inspiring way to live. Serving inside our churches on Sundays is ONE good thing, but letting the Prince of Peace incarnate our lives and culture fully the rest of the week MUST be our new directive and purpose. All our life being all the Church because Jesus is still incarnate in all we do, is how we light the way forward and reach a searching, curious, hurting, lost world. This is how we can be real disciples of a very real and Jewish Jesus.

I know it's late and maybe I've just had too much sun, but I'm thinking about replacing the candles at church with sparklers. I think Jesus is in the sparklers.